Aiden Aslin: Captured Briton facing death after fighting for Ukraine ‘submits appeal’

British Aiden Aslin who was captured while fighting for Ukraine has submitted an appeal for the death penalty sentence, according to Russian media.

Mr Aslin, originally from Newark in Nottinghamshire, was sentenced to death last month by a proxy court in the Russian-backed seperatist Donetsk region of Ukraine in what Foreign Secretary Liz Truss condemned as a “sham judgment”.

Now it has emerged the 28-year-old has submitted an appeal against the sentence on Monday, according to the Russian Interfax agency.

“A cassation appeal against the verdict was filed today," his lawyer Pavel Kosovan told Interfax.

Mr Aslin was sentenced together with fellow Briton Shaun Pinner, originally from Bedfordshire, and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun Aiden Aslin, 28, after being treated as foreign “mercenaries” by pro-Russian authorities in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

Both Mr Aslin and Mr Pinner were living in Ukraine before the invasion.

The UK government has called for them to be treated as prisoners of war as full members of the Ukrainian armed forces.

The breakaway region’s supreme court had received appeals from lawyers for Mr Saadoun and Mr Pinner but said Mr Aslin had yet to submit an appeal, the TASS news agency reported on Friday.

It follows the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issuing an order to Russia to ensure the two Britons do not face a firing squad after being sentenced to death.

Last week, the court said it had issued an order for interim measures.

It told Russia it “should ensure that the death penalty imposed on the applicants was not carried out; ensure appropriate conditions of their detention; and provide them with any necessary medical assistance and medication”.

Speaking to the BBC last month, the grandmother of Mr Aslin, Pamela Hall, said his captors claimed no one from the UK “has made contact” to help secure his release.

She said: “There are no words, just no words, it’s got to be everyone’s worst nightmare to have a member of your family threatened in this way.

“Aiden was extremely upset when he called his mother this morning. The bottom line is Aiden has said the DPR has told him nobody from the UK has made contact, and that he will be executed.”

The two Britons and Moroccan Saaudun Brahim were captured while reportedly defending Mariupol from Russian bombardment.